Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed to create a special fire squadron in the country, which will include 22 aircraft and helicopters. This was reported on October 14 by RIA Novosti with reference to sources.
"According to the instruction of the head of state, together with Rostec State Corporation, a flight squadron for firefighting will be created consisting of 10 Be-200ChS aircraft, 10 Ka-32A11M helicopters and two Mi-26T helicopters," one of the agency's interlocutors said.
Another source clarified that the squadron will be created by financing the National Welfare Fund, and will be maintained by Rostec.
In turn, the state corporation confirmed that such an order really exists. They said that the basis of the grouping will be Ka-32A11M and Be-200.
"The Be-200 aircraft is unique, it has no analogues. These machines are in great demand when extinguishing forest fires," the state corporation said.
Sergey Chemezov, Head of Rostec, made a proposal to create a special squadron of Be-200 amphibious aircraft to extinguish natural and man-made fires at the Hydroaviasalon forum in October 2020.
The configuration of the Be-200 aircraft is designed to extinguish forest fires with extinguishing liquids. A feature of the Be-200 compared to other amphibious aircraft is a completely sealed fuselage, which allows this aircraft to be used for a wide range of tasks. In 2008, production of the Be-200 was transferred to the Beriev Tank Farm in Taganrog.